his is not your usual war movie, not for a single moment. Black Book, the first movie director Paul Verhoeven has made in his native Holland in more than 20 years, is drenched with sex, overflowing in spectacle, and deliberately controversial in its rendering of history.

The Dutch-born Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls and Starship Troopers) brings some hyper sensibility to a film that focuses on plucky Rachel (played by newcomer Carice van Houten), the daughter of an affluent Rotterdam Jewish family.

Too convoluted to describe, this luridly gripping tale takes place in Holland in 1944, with the war winding down. We follow Rachel from the death of her parents and brother at the hands of Nazis, during a botched nocturnal flight from Holland. With the aid of a lawyer who secretly helps his Jewish clients escape to Allied territory, Rachel begins her journey to safety.

Yet, Rachel's bid for freedom is terrifyingly problematic; it's one impossible close call after another as she finds herself back in the Netherlands, this time under the protection of resistance leader Kuipers (Derek de Lint) and his fiery lieutenant Akkermans (Thom Hoffman).